Select Local Merchants

The owners of The Meat Shop of Indianapolis go to great lengths to ensure that their wares are fit for a king's grill, a campsite's frying pan, or a family's crockpot. Instead of leaving the quality of their meat to chance, they embark on personal inspections of their meat suppliers and staff their counters with butchers who have more than 25 years of cleaver-wielding experience. As noted in the Indianapolis Star, they don't just hawk traditional steaks, chops, chicken, and cold cuts, expanding to include exotic meats including bison, rabbit, goat, and leprechaun.

Based on the concept of balancing bodies with all-natural supplements and organic food, Nature's Pharm opened its first health-centric emporium in Fishers 13 years ago. It has since built up a tiny fiefdom of three stores across central Indiana, where a bounty of pastas, sauces, condiments, and gluten-free snacks keeps pantries wholesomely stocked. Curated shelves of carefully formulated amino acids, omega-3 supplements, and vitamins equip systems with vital nutrients. These herbal capsules, tablets, powders, and liquids infuse bodies with the power of nature without the need for planting a whole garden or licking a tree.

The Three Faces of Goose the Market
Fresh Indiana Meats
Real meat has a story. This is one of the founding principles at Goose the Market, where the meat does, in fact, have a tale to tell, albeit a short one without many characters. That’s because Goose works directly with Indiana farmers, who slaughter their all-natural livestock mere hours or days before delivering its meat to the market. As a result, the shop’s customers always know where their meat comes from and how it was raised.
Award-Winning Sandwiches
The neighborhood market of bygone eras was always the place to go if you wanted a good sandwich. Goose has picked up that torch with its own roster of sandwiches—Bon Appetit magazine even placed it on its list of Top 10 Sandwich Shops in the country in 2008. The “standout sandwich” then, and now, is the Batali, named after Armandino Batali, a famous salumi maker. This Italian creation features spicy coppa, soppressata, capicola, tomato preserves, and hot giardiniera for an extra kick.
Italian Enoteca
The enoteca—an Italian word for "wine repository"—at Goose resides in the basement. Here, a rotating menu of wines shares space with a wide selection of craft beers. In keeping with the market's passion for all things local, the enoteca houses communal tables for neighbors to meet up over small plates of artisanal cheese or charcuterie.

Trips to the grocery store induce awkward encounters with lackluster acquaintances from stamp club and the time-consuming, morally draining process of choosing produce. Today's deal saves the greater Cincinnati area from public scrutiny by delivering fresh, organic products from local Midwest farmers and artisans (call ahead to see if your location is eligible for delivery). Unlike reruns, doppelgangers, and Keanu Reeves's acting technique, Farm Fresh produce bins are never the same. Cucumbers, oranges, avocados, apples, mangos, pineapples, asparagus, or almost any fruit or vegetable can make it into Farm Fresh's selection, depending on the season; click here to see this week's picks. Year-round choices include all-natural breads, farm-fresh eggs, organic cheeses and milk, honey, jams and preserves, fresh and frozen pastas, and loose-leaf teas. Each bin is completely customizable, which encourages you to get creative with an assortment of organic matter.

At Whole Foods Market, shoppers will find a variety of organic, gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian and non-GMO products. Located in the Nora Plaza shopping center near North Central High School, this popular branch of the national chain has all of the usual throwback grocery store appeal, thanks to wooden shelves that line each aisle and an open-air ceiling that allows for exposed piping and duct work. While striving to support local commerce, many products there are purchased from in-state and regional providers. The meat and seafood area at Whole Foods Market features vegetarian-fed, hormone-free items and sustainability fished and farmed seafood, while the rest of the tall, warm, inviting space is taken up by prepackaged goods that range from entirely healthful to devilishly delicious. Bulk stations for nuts, grains and dried fruits add to the DIY food approach.

As one of two Trader Joe’s stores in the Indianapolis area, this 82nd Street outlet located at the east end of the Castleton Point strip mall provides visitors with a non-traditional grocery shopping experience. Angled aisles contribute to a spacious feeling inside the facility, while Hawaiian shirt-wearing employees add to the store’s relaxed atmosphere. But as any true TJ’s aficionado knows, it’s the food, more than anything else, which sets Trader Joe’s apart from other grocers. The store doesn’t carry many externally-branded items, opting instead to vertically integrate their own versions of common grocery store sundries, nearly all of which are free of artificial flavors or preservatives, synthetic colors, MSG, genetically-modified ingredients or partially hydrogenated oils.